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Zenith pre-drilled hole problem.

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p.mulwitz(at)worldnet.att
Guest

Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 8:45 pm Post subject: Zenith pre-drilled hole problem.

I don't know exactly why I am addressing this subject now, but a 

recent comment on the poor workmanship from Zenith got me started.



I recently had to scrap an entire wing on my XL.  I thought it was 

poor locations of predrilled holes, but after plenty of rethinking I 

have changed my mind.



My problem was in locating the leading edge skin properly.  The 

directions say to align the center of the bend with the reference 

line on the nose ribs.  Unfortunately, the reference line is not 

something we kit builders have on our ribs - that is something that 

exists only on the form blocks for the ribs.  In the end I drilled 

some really poorly located holes in the spar angle and learned after 

several weeks of correspondence that the angle was toast.  I was 

offered the opportunity to take the whole wing apart, send the spar 

to Canada for repair and rebuild it.  I opted to just scrap it and start over.



On my other wing I whined at ZAC about the hole locations in the rear 

top skin.  Roger had me measure the locations of all the holes to 

find the problem.  It turns out only the last row of holes in the 

skin were off.  My realization after a while is that the holes are 

drilled using perfect assumptions about how the ribs will be located 

on the spar, but as a human being I didn't locate the ribs perfectly 

so the "Perfect" predrilled holes in the skin didn't match my wing 

skeleton.  My conclusion was that since the holes that locate the 

ribs on the spars are not predrilled it is a kit design error to have 

the holes in the skin predrilled.   Fortunately, I was able to order 

replacement skins without the holes for my next attempt.  I am sure I 

can drill the holes in a blank skin where they should be to match my 

wing skeleton.  I probably saved some money on the skins from ZAC too.



One other think I learned in this whole fiasco is that ZAC doesn't 

make the spars that go in the XL kit - Zenair does.  I don't know how 

far this practice goes, but I suspect Zenair (a Canadian company) 

makes all the spars for all the Zenith kits.



I hope this helps someone.  My first wing is beyond repair, but I am 

having fun building more wings without any reference to the 

instructions.  The process is going very smoothly for me.



Paul

XL wings

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agustafson(at)chartermi.n
Guest

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 5:41 am Post subject: Zenith pre-drilled hole problem.

Yea!! for the continuing education of kit builders!  Scratch builders avoid 

all this but lack one important thing.  SOMEONE TO PASS THE BUCK TO!

Just a little humor for a Sunday morning.

Aaron    do not archive



Original message

 	  Quote: 	
		   I recently had to scrap an entire wing on my XL.


	


 	  Quote: 	
		   My realization after a while is that the holes are

 drilled using perfect assumptions about how the ribs will be located

 on the spar, but as a human being I didn't locate the ribs perfectly

 so the "Perfect" predrilled holes in the skin didn't match my wing

 skeleton.


	


 	  Quote: 	
		   I am sure I  can drill the holes in a blank skin where they should be to 

 match my

 wing skeleton.


	


 	  Quote: 	
		   One other think I learned in this whole fiasco is that ZAC doesn't

 make the spars that go in the XL kit - Zenair does.  I don't know how

 far this practice goes, but I suspect Zenair (a Canadian company)

 makes all the spars for all the Zenith kits.



 but I am  having fun building more wings without any reference to the

 instructions.

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naumuk(at)alltel.net
Guest

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 8:34 am Post subject: Zenith pre-drilled hole problem.

---

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